May in the Summer is directed by Cherien Dabis, who made herself known to audiences with her film Amreeka, and who also wrote and stars in this film alongside Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat and Bill Pullman.

In May in the Summer, Dabis stars as May Brennan, an acclaimed writer living in New York who returns to her hometown in Jordan for her wedding. Yet not everyone at home is thrilled with her upcoming marriage, especially her born-again Christian mother (Abbass) who disapproves of May’s fiancés Muslim faith and refuses to be part of the wedding planning or even to attend the ceremony. May finds solace with her two sisters (Alia Shawkat and Nadine Malouf) as her youngest sister Dalia (Shawkat) struggles with her sexuality and their estranged father (Pullman) tries to get back into their lives. The film is a personal, and often times humorous, look at family dynamics and the conflicts between old-world traditions and modern values in a part of the world not often seen on US screens.

Cherien Dabis is an award-winning feature filmmaker whose first feature Amreeka had a world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, opened New Director’s/New Films at MoMA, and won the prestigious FIPRESCI award in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Independent Spirit Awards, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. The same year, Dabis was also named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch.” Dabis returned to Sundance in 2013 with her second feature May in the Summer.

A Guggenheim Fellow, USA Rockefeller Fellow and winner of the Humanitas Prize as well as the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award, Dabis is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, Film Independent Director’s Lab and Tribeca All Access, where she was honored with the L’Oréal Paris Woman of Worth Vision Award. She was also appointed a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting and has received a Renew Media/Tribeca Film Institute Media Artist Fellowship. She has also been awarded grants from Time Warner, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, National Geographic, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award.

NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.